RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2012 VOLUME 127 No 1

EDITORIAL Editor Caspar Melville News Editor Paul Sims Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Cartoons Editor Judy Walker Designer Nick McKay Cover Getty Images Website www.newhumanist.org.uk

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

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CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

MYRA ZEPF writes children’s fiction and is a regular columnist for the Gaelic-language An tUltach magazine. On page 11 she explains why her New Year’s resolution is to stop answering her children’s questions. She lives in County Down, Northen Ireland.

FREDERIK STJERNFELT is Professor of Semiotics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He says the response of the AngloAmerican press to the fireboming of the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been cowardly (see page 9).

4 New Humanist JANUARY FEBRUARY 2012

ABBY OHLHEISER is a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to the online review of religious news The Revealer (therevealer. org). She lives in Brooklyn, New York. On page 14 she reviews the Republican candidates vying for the “God ’n’ Guns” vote.

CULLEN MURPHY is editor at large of Vanity Fair magazine. His new book, God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World, will be published by Penguin in January. On page 33 he reveals what he discovered in the Inquisition archives.

JAMILA BEY is a journalist living in Washington, DC. Born to a Southern Baptist convert to Catholicism and a non-practising Black Muslim, she is now an out and proud atheist, not an easy thing for a African-American woman to be, as she describes on page 32.

atheist, not an easy thing o oOH MY AMERICA On 1 November the US House of Representatives responded to what they said was a crisis of national identity by passing a motion to reaffirm the official motto of the United States: “In God we trust”. That same week the Public Religion Research Institute released its 2011 American Values Survey which showed that 67 per cent would be uncomfortable with a president who did not have some kind of religious belief. In January the US enters primary season, when the Republican party chooses who will be challenging President Obama in November’s presidential election, and it comes as no surprise that every one of the nomination hopefuls has made a point of emphasising their sincerely held faith in God. As Abby Ohlheiser writes in her analysis of their chances on page 14, no matter who gets the nomination it seems clear that the next US president will not be an atheist. She also tells us why our cover star Sarah Palin has pulled out of the campaign, and assesses the chances of current front runner Mitt Romney, a Mormon, against the resurgent Newt Gingrich.

[editorial]

God, she writes, can get you accused of being a race traitor.

HOMER FOR THE HOLIDAYS For a comprehensive primer on the huge array of American faiths and their foibles you don’t need to go to America. Look no further than your TV screen. For 22

years everyone’s favourite dysfunctional family, The Simpsons, have been shining a satirical light on America’s addiction to faith. Catholics, Hindus, evangelicals, cults, God and Ned Flanders have all been grist to the Groening mill. Andrew Mueller recalls some of the best lessons, and the funniest lines, on page 26. But don’t laugh too soon, as on page 20 Francis Beckett tackles a rather more insidious American TV import – ranting televangelists. Beckett provides an insight into the homegrown versions of this grisly type currently filling up the Sunday-morning godslot.

YOUNG, GIFTED, BLACK, ATHEIST One of the ironies of the PRRI survey is that while atheists are still the group least trusted to hold political power, they are also shown to be the fastest growing “faith” group in America. Even so, as Jamila Bey writes on page 32, it can be hard being an atheist in America, and doubly so if you are black. From Martin Luther King to Reverend Jesse Jackson and from Aretha Franklin to the Reverend Al Green, Afro-American politics and culture are deeply entwined with religion. Turning your back on deeply entwined with religion. Turning your back on

ANTIDOTES If all this is enough to make you want to shoot your TV, why not switch off and take comfort from the rich humanist fare on the rest of our pages. On page 13 comedy writer Andy Hamilton pays tribute to that original God-botherer, the Devil, while Sally

Feldman, on page 36, suggests why you should be eating cream puffs, chips and deep-fried Mars Bars this January. On page 42 biographer Claire Tomalin tells Matthew Adams, about the great humanity, and the all too human failings, of Charles Dickens. Finally, if you’re stuck for a New Year’s resolution we can supply an ideal one: invest in a year’s worth of this excellent magazine for yourself (or for a good friend). Just visit newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe for details. ■

THE SIMPSONS’ REVEREND LOVEJOY ON BEING ASKED IF WE SHOULD FEAR GOD > PAGE 26

THE SIMPSONS’ REVEREND LOVEJOY ON BEING ASKED IF WE SHOULD FEAR GOD

“Short answer, yes with an if. Long answer, no with a but.”

“Short answer, yes with an if. Long answer, no with a but.”

JANUARY FEBRUARY 2012 New Humanist 5